Black Swan is winning awards and stirring up discussion left and right. The film engages a number of feminist themes in the story of Nina, a ballet dancer obsessed with achieving perfection. In this post Feministing writers discuss our reactions to the film.

*Warning: lots of major SPOILERS for the film follow*

Body transformation.

Actors get a lot of attention for changing their bodies in dramatic ways – putting on a lot of muscle or losing a lot of weight. Natalie Portman, who was small already, didn’t just get even more skinny, she got a body that looked like that of a ballet dancer. Portman’s talked about how starving herself for the role was almost like method acting. Certainly the body fit the ...